1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for providing enhanced communications for the managing of projects, and more particularly to systems and methods for managing and monitoring construction project communications involving multiple resource providers.
2. Background Information
An example of such projects are Construction projects which involve a complicated process requiring the cooperative efforts of multiple business entities, in which work for the projects are posted for bids, bids are placed, bids are evaluated, bids are awarded, and construction takes place. One specific type of construction project is the xe2x80x9cspecified bid constructionxe2x80x9d process which has evolved a complicated and cumbersome method for connecting work to be done with entities who are capable and interested in doing such work. This is the bidding system typically related to large construction projects, which are based on a large set of professionally prepared project specifications.
A typical life cycle of such a process follows. Such a project begins when an owner decides to build a building. The project owner could be a government entity, a business, an individual, or a group of individuals. The owner has some conception of the project, or has certain functional specifications which are required. For instance, the owner may require parking to be available for 200 automobiles, or may require the project to be for a 14-story building with a certain number of square feet available on each floor for rent. The owner defines whatever aspects of the project are critical to him, and prepares some general description of the project.
Next, the owner posts the general description of the project, and invites architects, designers, and engineering companies or other qualified individuals to submit proposals for the project. The proposals of these architects, designers, and engineers, or companies with some or all of these abilities, are submitted, and may include proposed plans for the design, appearance, and general specification of the project. From these submitted proposals, the owner selects the firm with the preferred design bid and awards the design contract to that firm. This may be a firm with one architect, one designer, or one engineer, or it can be a huge firm with a large staff of such professionals.
The Architect or Architect/Engineer (A/E) firm which is awarded the design bid is called the xe2x80x9cProject Managerxe2x80x9d after winning the design bid. The Project Manager next prepares detailed specifications which define the details of the project in much higher detail than the owner""s proposal contained. There are typically some 16 defined major divisions of work within a project based on categories of construction defined in a widely accepted xe2x80x9cCSIxe2x80x9d code. Some projects may have only a few divisions, others may have all 16. (The 16 divisions are also broken down into sub divisions.)
Once these detailed specifications are prepared, they are posted for bid. In the current system, these detailed specifications are made available to potential bidders by announcing their availability through local plan centers or through a pre-selected General Contractor. Interested bidders may contact the Project Manager and seek to be placed on an allowed bidders list. As registered bidders, they can get copies of the written plans, drawings and specifications, or portions of them, and begin reviewing them to prepare individual bids.
Several business entities may prepare competitive bids on one or more portions of the specified work. Bids for completing the work which is outlined in the detailed specification are bid and performed through several layers of contractors. These contractors could be called resource providers, because they provide various resources which are needed by the project. These resources could be labor, equipment, materials, or management. The prior art system of managing the bidding and information flow of a project is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The zero level of bidding occurs as above, when the Architects compete for the project design work. The second and more extensive level of bidding starts when general contractors bid on the right to manage the overall project. At this step of the process, general contractors evaluate the overall project, and begin preparing overall bids. In order for a general contractor to prepare a complete project bid, the general contractor requests bids from contractors for specific divisions or sets of divisions of the project. This information is needed so that the general contractor can get a good estimate of what it will cost for him to do the project. In order for contractors to submit bids to the general contractors, they in turn request bids from subcontractors on individual divisions or portions thereof. Before the subcontractors can submit bids to the contractors, the subcontractors must invite bids from vendors. So, in order for each general contractor to prepare a bid for the project, he must have a chain of bids from contractors, subcontractors, and vendors. When this is accomplished, each general contractor who is interested in the project compiles and submits their bid for completing the entire project. One particular vendor may submit bids which are included in the bids of a number of different subcontractors, contractors, and general contractors. Likewise, subcontractors and contractors may submit a number of bids to work with various general contractors.
For a chance at the successful completion of the project, the winning bidder must assemble a large and complex partnership, linked by bids and proposals based on the design and specifications published for that project. Each project publication initiates a new series of communications, bids and partnerships. While several such temporary partnership structures may form for each posted project, only one is successful. The efforts of xe2x80x9closingxe2x80x9d bidders are lost, and the costs of that effort must be absorbed by the business entities involved.
After the general contractors have submitted bids for the project, the owner or the architect, or the two in combination, select a general contractor to manage and complete the project. In order for the general contractor to complete the project, each contractor, subcontractor, and vendor of supplies, material or equipment, performs the portion of the work which they agreed to, in the schedule they agreed to in their bids to the general contractor, and eventually the project is completed.
This general flow of information, offers, bids, and commitments, which is illustrated in FIG. 1 would appear to be fairly simple and effective. However, in practice, there are many problems with this system. FIG. 2 shows a more detailed view of some of the interactions that take place between some of the larger steps which are shown in FIG. 1. For instance, when the detailed specifications of a project are posted for bids, and as contractors, subcontractors, and vendors evaluate the postings, they set into motion the task of screening a variety of simultaneous postings, seeking additional details on postings of interest, proportioning projects between themselves, and seeking partnerships among themselves to be able to bid on portions of the project for which they are qualified. The contractors, subcontractors, and vendors also make bid decisions, form a variety of temporary partnerships, and prepare bids. All of these interactions require extensive communications between each entity. These activities are disorganized and involve delay, expense, and frustration for the contractors, subcontractors, and vendors. Eventually, however, the vendors submit bids for the project to subcontractors, who submit their bids to contractors, who submit their bids to the general contractors, who submit their bids to the Project Manager or owner.
The inefficiencies and bottlenecks in communication and allocation of resources inherent in this system are best addressed by a network-based communications system to facilitate every step of the process. Such a system would add value from the point at which the site owner begins seeking design assistance, through the design, bidding and construction, down to the day of occupancy of the new facility, where the owner turns over the key to the new residents of the building.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a system and method for managing communications between resource providers and project owners in a network-based business system. Another object of the invention is to provide a system in which information about work to be performed is clearly and professionally communicated to potential resource providers who may be interested in performing the work. Another object is to provide a means of statusing the state of completion of bids on a project phase. A further object is to provide a means for reporting errors or omissions in the projects specifications at each phase of the specification process. It is also a desirable objective to provide a means for suggesting changes to the design that may be significant to the bid estimates on any portion of the project. Another object of the invention is to accomplish the above objectives without violating the proprietary rights of any participating business entity and without jeopardizing the highly competitive nature of the overall process.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means of statusing the design and responding to questions, comments, or suggestions submitted by the participants. Such design changes may be added in the form of addenda and may include changes in design specifications, plan text errors, drawing errors or omissions. Such addenda may also be legal and ethical requirements placed upon the project management.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a means for resource providers to post a current level of interest in a specific project in order to locate complementary resource providers who wish to form a partnership or partnerships to perform work on a project or on a specific portion of a project.
Another object of the invention is to provide a means of identifying the interests, qualifications, and capability of resource providers such as architects, designer, engineers, general contractors, contractors, subcontractors, and vendors, so that the resource providers might may be notified of projects of possible interest in the future, and so that persons interested in the resources they can provide can find, locate, and communicate with them easily.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description as follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
It will also become apparent to those skilled in the art upon such examination that the objects, advantages and novel features of the invention may be applied to the management and communications requirements of other projects, project owners, and resource providers not necessarily related to the field of construction.
These and other objects are accomplished in the invention, which is a method and system for managing communications between resource providers and project owners. The method and system is a network-based business system which includes a number of steps.
Project owners and a number of resource providers are connected to a network-based database. Project owners can include government agencies, corporations, individuals, groups of individuals, or any entity which desires to complete a project of some kind. The example provided is for construction projects. This would typically be for a building, but could be for any type of construction project, such as a highway project, parking lot, sidewalks, tunneling projects, mass transit projects, or even projects which are primarily services, such as street sweeping, municipal sanitation, municipal transportation, freight transportation, or other such services.
The project owners and resource providers are linked through the network to the resource system database. Each participant is both a provider of data to the database and a user of the database. The database exists as one or more databases accessed through a network, and the databases may reside on a number of computers. The system database is administered by a system manager or administrator.
The project owner prepares a set of specifications which define his proposed project, and posts these specifications on the resource system database, which is accessible from the network.
The resource providers provide a set of criteria for the database which defines the range of characteristics of projects of interest to them, and provides a set of their qualifications to perform all or a portion of such projects.
A means is provided for the resource providers to review and select the projects which are of interest to that particular resource provider. That means may include the automatic matching of the specifications of each project with the resource provider""s criteria to effect the screening or filtering of projects to aid in the selection process.
After selecting and reviewing the details of a project of interest, a resource provider can bid on this project or a portion of the project. After receiving bids from resource providers, the project owner can evaluate the bids, confirm the qualifications of the bidders, and select a winning bidder for the project or a portion of the project.
The description above is a general description of a generalized project, and how the system and method of the invention manages those communications, and makes information available to the parties. The step of preparing the specification might also include further steps of announcing a project, publishing its scope, and requesting proposals from design professionals such as architects, engineers, or designers.
These design professionals would aid in the development of detailed specifications, such as project plans, designs, drawings, and blueprints. The resource providers involved could operate at a number of levels. The various levels of resource providers would include the design professionals (zero level), who are architects, designers, and engineers, and companies which provide those services. Another level of resource provider would be the general contractors (first level). Other levels of resource providers could be contractors, subcontractors, and vendors. The system or method of the invention would provide a means for a first level resource provider to divide a project into portions and post one or more of these portions for bidding by one or more second level resource providers. Thus a general contractor could divide the project into portions and post its selected portions for bid by contractors.
The system and method of the invention also provides a means by which project owners can report changes to project specifications, and make those changes available to system users. This could be in the form of corrections of errors, changed drawings, or clarification of terms. This posting helps fulfill the owners ethical and legal obligations to report any material changes to all parties involved in the process. This feature also eliminates a major problem with the prior art system, by making such changes, modifications, and corrections to the specifications readily available to the system users.
One way for resource providers to select projects which interest them is to set up a separate file or database of resource provider capabilities. This database would contain information relating to the capabilities of resource providers, which the resource provider would enter in a template. The database could filter the available projects and match them with the capabilities of resource providers, and yield a list of projects which fall within the resource capabilities of an interested resource provider. This selection capability could also work in the other direction, and allow the project owners to arrive at a list of resource providers who are likely to have the capabilities and interest in the project. The same feature would be available at all levels of the chain, for resource providers to find work in which they are interested, and for owners or higher level resource providers to find resource providers who can provide specific resources for their projects.
Each participant in the system would typically submit a set of information to the database of the system or method, and this set of selection information will be termed a xe2x80x9ctemplate.xe2x80x9d For instance, the owner of the project would submit general project specifications in a project specification template as part of the step of preparing the specifications for the project. Preparing the specifications of the project could also be done by the owner, in conjunction with a design professional such as an architect, engineer, or designer, and this more detailed information could also be submitted in a detailed project specification template.
In addition to the zero or design level, other resource providers at a variety of levels could be linked to the network. These could be termed first level, second level, third level resource providers, and there could be a number of other levels. The design professional could be a zero level resource provider, the general contractor could be first level resource provider, the contractor could be a second level resource provider, subcontractors could be a third level resource provider, and vendors could be the fourth level resource provider. Vendors could be companies that supply tools, equipment, material, services, or other items used by resource providers. Vendors could include manufacturers, manufacturer""s representatives, supply houses, distributors, companies, or any supplier of such items.
The system or method also provides a means for the various levels of resource providers to form temporary associations or partnerships in order to bid on and complete a portion of the project. Resource providers at all levels enter information concerning their interests in various types of projects, and capabilities of performing certain types of projects. Projects which fall within their specified criteria of interest, are selected (or screened) by the system from all of the projects in the database, and the interested resource provider is notified of such projects. Background information of each resource provider is also entered into the database so that the resource providers can be selected to meet the qualifications required by the specifications of the project.
To facilitate the selection of projects by resource providers, the templates are provided to the resource providers which may be modified by the resource provider to select a new set of projects. These user modifiable templates may remain proprietary or they may be available for viewing by other system users. Multiple user modifiable templates can also be supplied to resource providers for advanced filtering of the system databases. Thus a resource provider may consider a group of projects within a narrow geographic range by setting that narrow range on the template. If the provider is not satisfied with the number of projects, the template may be modified to cover a wider geographic area to generate and notify the provider of a larger number of otherwise acceptable projects.
A means is also provided for system participants to communicate with other system participants who may require goods or services in order to complete or bid on a portion of a project. This facilitates the formation of temporary partnerships and alliances for completing a bid or for conducting and completing a joint set of work on a project or portion of a project.
A means is also provided for statusing the state of completion of a bid on a project or a portion of a project being prepared by resource providers. Bid date information may also be provided. As part of the statusing of the state of completion of a bid, a list of qualified resource providers may be provided to the parties posting work out for bid. A list of known bidders for a portion of a project may also be made available to system participants. Likewise, a notice to potential bidders of a lack of competitive bids for one or more portions of a project may also be provided to system participants.